From silver 71 to LG-1
an aircraft captured and reutilized by Finnish AF
By Massimo Tessitori
File updated on November 11, 2009
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This LaGG-3 c/n 070171, silver 71, was shot down by the Finnish a/a artillery on March 6, 1942, near Nurmoila air base on the Olontets isthmus.
The plane belonged to the 524 IAP of the 7th Air Army.
The landing was good; the pilot survived, but shot himself before being captured.

 
Another image of the plane and of  Finnish ground crew. 
Note the unusually gloss surface.
 
A Finnish officer near the tail of the plane. 
The tail number was described as silver. 
The code 070171 is written on the rudder and stabilizer, probably in white.

 

Image from Red Stars vol 1		 Of all the available images, this one is the clearest because allows to see well the camouflage: a third, lighter color was brush-painted over the  green bands of a standard "reversed" AMT-4/AMT-6 camouflage.
Finnish reports describe the use of non-standard apposition of a brighter green over standard green/black planes; so it could be the case of this LaGG-3 too.

 
The aircraft appears:
  • standard camouflage sprayed with AMT4 green and AMT-6 black, with colors exchanged compared to the most common scheme;
  • brush overpaintings with a lighter color, probably 4B0 or A-19f green;
  • AMT-7 light blue lower surfaces;
  • red stars in 6 positions; 
  • silver 71 on the tail, overposed to the tail star;
  • the engine cowling panels look from another plane, painted according to the standard unreversed camouflage.
Below: a guess of the upper camo scheme
The aircraft was probably of 4th/7th series, and its characteristics were:
  • sharp prop spinner;
  • tubular exhaust stacks;
  • 1 ShVAK 20 mm firing through the propeller shaft;
  • 1 12,7 UB machine gun guns on the left side of the engine cowling, and relative holes on the left side of the cowling;
  • 2 x 7,62 mm ShKAS machine guns on the engine cowling;
  • engine cowling with fast locks on lower panel only;
  • rounded side plates behind the exhaust stacks;
  • rectangular supercharger intakes;
  • long  radio mast;
  • straight rudder with upper balance mass only;
  • fixed tail wheel;
  • no slats, pitot on the right leading edge.

 
According to the Finnish book  "Punatähtestä hakaristiin" (from red star to swastika), this plane was restored as LG-1, while black.29 was utilized only for spare parts; this looks strange, because black 29 appears in better conditions on photos.

Go to LG-1 page

Thanks to AR and Tapani for their informations and their kind help.
 
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